Hundreds mourn loss of State College of Florida baseball coaching legend Tim Hill

BRADENTON -- The parking lot was full of cars, and the people packed the arranged seats behind home plate. They also piled into the stands behind the backstop, and there were some who were standing.

They encompassed various generations of players, coaches, family members and State College of Florida staff who gathered at the Robert C. Wynn baseball field for the celebration of life for longtime head coach Tim Hill.

Hill passed away on Christmas Day after battling multiple system atrophy, or MSA. It's similar to Parkinson's disease. He was 71.

Hill, a coach for 31 years, is the all-time winningest baseball coach in Florida state junior college history. On Wednesday, a plethora of people crammed in and around SCF's Wynn Field to say a final goodbye to a mentor usually referred to by the jersey number he wore during his career in Bradenton.

"He was a man that really loved his family," his wife Genevieve Hill said to the group that congre

gated.

That family extended beyond his immediate family to all the players who passed through the baseball program.

Often, Hill focused on getting players of high character, even when it meant nobody else was looking at them.

Callix Crabbe and Justin Zinkovich, a pair of former players who now coach baseball, were among the pallbearers on Wednesday. Before their playing days at SCF, they recalled, nobody was giving them a chance to play. "He made you always feel as if you were special, no matter the moment," Crabbe said.

Zinkovich, who suffered an injury in high school, was left searching for a place to play at the next level.

Hill and his son, Tim Hill II, watched him throw, "and they took a chance on me when no one else would," Zinkovich said.

Another pallbearer, Austin Chubb, spent three years at SCF because of missing one season to an injury. He's set to become a coach in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization now that his playing days are over.

A short message from Hill that continues to stick in Chubb's head now is "choices and consequences."

"I don't think I necessarily took that to heart right away, but when I left I sure did," Chubb said. "I just grew up a lot because of him. Every choice that you make is going to have a consequence to it. It's either going to be a negative one or a positive one."

And it wasn't just past players who had fond memories of Hill, affectionately known as "7" by the later generations and "6" -- for the jersey he wore as an assistant and later head coach until the early 1990s, because No. 7 was not available at the time.

Former SCF softball coach Meredith Headings also recalled how impactful Hill was toward others, during her playing days and later as a coach.

"To see his unwavering faith and to see how rock solid he was, and what I always remember is he never had a bad thing to say about anyone," Headings said.

Head coaches from Pasco-Hernando, St. Petersburg College and Polk State, in addition to Polk's athletic director and the newly retired head baseball coach from Hillsborough Community College, also were in attendance.

Polk State's head coach is Al Corbeil, a son-in-law to Hill. He penned the following on the back of Wednesday's program in tribute to Hill:

"A beautiful mind with traits many desired. His words were clear cut and leaders inspired. He molded the minds of boys into men. With none comparable to him since then. Admired close and afar. To myself and many he was a North Star. He walked out the words that he spoke. As a husband and father as strong red oak. Your affirming words quenched out all doubt. You strengthened my faith in God throughout. You moved with an aura that set you apart. You were a man that gave the best of your heart. A true leader is gone to be with the Lord. Heaven's angels are singing a perfect chord. So take him with me I will and not a day will go by. Your spirit overhead like an eagle shall fly. An impact you've made on the man I've become. I am so grateful you called me your son. Wherever I am and wherever I go. The voice of a coach, mentor, and father I know. Passing on your torch as we've all felt your flame. Enshrined now in Heaven's Hall of Fame."

That is what symbolized Hill, who took on No. 7 in the early 1990s because of the sentiment it carried, Genevieve Hill said.

"Seven in the Bible is a perfect number," current SCF head coach Tim Hill II said.

This story was originally published January 6, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Hundreds mourn loss of State College of Florida baseball coaching legend Tim Hill ."